Pew

We know that kids who grow up in low-income homes are less likely to have high incomes as adults. But which factors most help kids climb the economic ladder, and which hold them back? The Pew Economic Mobility Project put together a handy, interactive site where you can combine different factors such as race, marital status and education to determine which combinations give people the best odds of getting ahead. Are you a single black female? If you get a college degree, your chances of climbing the economic ladder are at 83 percent. Same person, no degree? You have only a 9 percent chance of moving up, according to Pew.

This chart comes from a report released yesterday by the Pew Economic Mobility Project. The report looked at the effects of unemployment on American families. Overall, the report says one third of families in America experienced some form of unemployment between 1999 - 2009. But minority families were far more likely to be affected. Forty-one percent of black families and 51 percent of Latino families experienced unemployment during the period, compared to 30 percent of whites.

Our State of Opportunity team is looking into ways disadvantaged children in Michigan can get ahead, and we're planning on bringing you many personal stories of families that are working to do just that. But for the next two weeks, we want to take a look at what research can tell us about getting ahead in America. Today, we have a list of five facts about the American Dream.

Before we get to our list of facts, I want to tell you about a dark and dingy room in the basement of the Institute for Social Research building at the University of Michigan.